JPS5852850B2 - Norimononoanzensouchiyouuchiyouuchiyouuchi - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an expansion device used in a safety device for restraining occupants of a vehicle.

Generally, safety devices for restraining vehicle occupants utilize a type of crash sensor that senses the rapid deceleration that occurs when a vehicle is in a crash situation.

A collision signal from the sensor activates an inflation device which provides a quantity of inflation gas to inflate the seal 1.
This deters the occupants of the vehicle.

Safety devices of the type described herein are provided within the instrument panel or on the steering bundle for deployment within the cabin of the vehicle.

Although this invention is equally applicable to any safety device,
This is particularly useful for devices such as those located on steering bundles and will be discussed in this context below.

Problems associated with the use of safety devices that are sufficiently compact so that the inflation device can be placed on the steering bundle arise.

Since the driver is seated closer to the steering bundle than the instrument panel, the steering bundle enclosure must be fully inflated within a shorter period of time.

However, if the expansion force acts on the enclosure only in the direction of the driver, the enclosure may collide with the driver and cause injury.
On the other hand, if the expansion force acts on the enclosure only outward in a direction perpendicular to the driver's direction, the force will suddenly build up on the peripheral attachment part of the enclosure, causing it to break. This has the disadvantage that it impairs the enclosure's ability to inhibit the growth of gas, and that it takes time to expand.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an inflator for vehicle occupant safety equipment suitable for mounting on a steering bundle.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an expansion device that has a more compact outer shape, can be expanded within a short time, and does not easily cause injury to the driver or damage to the enclosure. be.

A further specific object of the present invention is to provide an expansion device in which the inflation gas exits the nozzle of the expansion device and is immediately diffused in a direction perpendicular to the nozzle and then guided into the enclosure. It is.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide an inflation device in which inflation gas pressure is gradually built up before the inflation gas is released to inflate the enclosure.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Inflation devices used in occupant safety systems can include solid propellants, stored gas, or a mixture of both as their source of inflation gas.

Because of the large volume of space required to store the reservoir gas in a container, a propellant-based expansion device is suitable for use with devices mounted on the steering bundle.

Thus, while the present invention can be used with any of the three inflation gas sources described above, it is particularly advantageous when used with propellant-based inflation devices and is discussed in this connection below.

In such an expansion device using propellant, it is necessary to quickly generate inflation gas and, at the same time, to cause the propellant stored in the casing to explode relatively uniformly over the entire surface.

It is therefore another object of the invention to provide an expansion device for a passenger safety device in which the ignition of the propellant is carried out substantially uniformly and rapidly over the entire cross-section of the expansion device casing.

These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent upon reading the detailed description below, wherein the propellant is contained within a casing having a generally circular cross section and the propellant is ignited in response to a collision signal. an ignition member; a lid member that is attached to the casing and has a nozzle for blowing out the expanding gas; and a lid member that is disposed above the nozzle and closes the nozzle through which the expanding gas is ignited from a first position when the propellant is ignited; This is accomplished by an expansion device having a diffuser member deformable to a second position to diffuse the gas radially outwardly from the orifice.

Referring now to the drawings, which are for the purpose of illustrating, but not limiting, an embodiment of the invention, FIG. 1 is a schematic partial view of a vehicle in which the invention is employed.

While the invention may be used to protect occupants of various types of vehicles such as trucks, boats, and airplanes, the occupant safety device described herein relates to protecting the driver of a motor vehicle.

Safety device 10 has an enclosure 12 and is located on steering bundle 20.

As shown in more detail in FIG. 2, the safety device 10 is positioned adjacent to the bub of a steering bundle 20 that includes a steering column 22 and supporting spokes 24.

The bub of steering bundle 20 has a chamber 26 and a shoulder 28.

An expansion device 30 is located within the chamber 26 and has an outer flange 3.
2 is seated on the shoulder portion 28, and the outer periphery of the enclosure 12 is held between them.

The enclosure 12 is housed within a housing 14, which may include perforations or weakened portions or the like.
When the enclosure 12 expands, it is easily destroyed by the pressure.

When a collision signal is sent to an electrical device within the expansion device 30, the propellant or other combustible mixture contained within the expansion device is ignited and the resulting inflation gas is transferred from the expansion device in a manner to be described below. The liquid flows through, expands the enclosure 12, and destroys the housing 14.

4. FIG. 3 is a plan view of the expansion device 30, and FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view thereof.

The flange 32 has a lid member 34 threadedly engaged with a bottom member 36.
It is welded around the circumference.

A casing is formed by the lid member 34 and the bottom member 36, and the lid member 34 is secured by threading a nut 42 into a thread 40 of a stud 38 having a thread 40 at the lid end to restrain the central area of the lid member 34. 34 is concentrically supported by the bottom member 36 and is restrained from moving in the axial direction.

Stud 38 has a head 44 that engages the outer surface of the conical portion of bottom member 36, the function of which will be described below.

The lid member 34 has a plurality of ejection holes 48, and these ejection holes 48 are provided so as to surround the upper surface portion of the lid member 34 and form various patterns.

The spout holes 48 are approximately evenly distributed throughout the lid member,
Their number and size are chosen to be suitable for the inflation gas to be ejected from the inflation device.

The pressure generated by combustion of the propellant is typically 3,500 p
Since it is within the range of s i, the lid member 34 and the bottom member 36
is preferably made of pressure vessel steel; in this embodiment, the outer diameter of the lid member 34 is approximately 10 crfL (4 inches);
The wall thickness of the pressure vessel steel is approximately 0.3 cIrL (1/8 inch) or greater.

The diffusion member 50 is firmly held between the lid member 34 and the nut 42 in surface contact with the upper surface of the lid member 34, and the solid line in FIG. 4 shows the first position in which the hole 48 is sealed.

Diffusion member 50 preferably comprises a circular metal plate whose outer portion is adhered to lid member 34 with an adhesive or epoxy to provide an airtight and watertight seal therebetween.

A filtration medium 52 is housed within the lid member 34 and includes a pair of damping layers 56 such as fiberglass or stainless steel mesh and a filtration member 54 .

A filter material 52 is used adjacent the spout 48 to ensure that hot particles produced as a result of combustion and which could damage the enclosure material are prevented from ejecting from the expansion device.

The filter media 52 is locally restrained by the shoulders 46 of the studs 38.

The remaining portion of the expansion device is the source of inflation fluid, which includes a propellant 60 and an ignition member 62.

The propellant 60 can be any of a variety of combustible mixtures, such as those based on commercially available azides.

Ignition member 62 typically uses a pyrotechnic 64, which is ignited in response to a collision signal carried by a pair of electrical conductors, not shown.

The fireworks 64 are surrounded by a shield 66, which will be described in detail later.

As mentioned above, in order to achieve uniform combustion of the propellant, the explosive fuse 68 is arranged to form an ignition path extending circumferentially around the bottom of the bottom member 36. It has been found to be effective.

In this embodiment, the explosive fuse is preferably affixed to the bottom surface of the bottom member and is a layer of continuous combustible material in the amount necessary to form the line gun ignition path.

In FIG. 5, along with FIGS. 3 and 4, the shield 66
details are shown.

The left cylindrical portion 70 of the shield 66 is attached to the inner surface of the bottom member 36 by welding or the like, surrounding an orifice through which an electrical conductor 72 attached to the firework 64 passes.

The cylindrical portion 70 is provided with internal threads for threaded engagement with the firework 64.

The right side of the shield 66 is a shield member 74, and the shield member 74 is shaped so that when the firework 64 is ignited in response to a collision signal, the ignition blast proceeds downward toward the explosive fuse 68. The firework 64 and the shield 66 are arranged substantially in the tangential direction to quickly ignite the explosive fuse 68.

Since the gunpowder fuse ignites more quickly than the propellant 60, the gunpowder fuse is ignited around the entire circumference of the expansion device, so that the ignition is evenly distributed around the propellant 60.

As the propellant 60 burns, the gas necessary to expand the enclosure is generated, and the gas pressure within the expansion device and within the orifice 48 is gradually created to exert a force on the underside of the diffusion member 50. .

When the generated pressure becomes large enough, the adhesive holding the diffusion member 50 to the lid member 34 is overcome by the inherent rigidity and pressure of the diffusion member 50, and the diffusion member 50 moves as shown in the dotted line in FIG. 5
As shown by 0a, it is deformed into a concave shape and opens upward.

When the diffuser 50 is deformed, the expanded gas flows freely out of the nozzle 48, but continues to flow in the axial direction (upward in FIG. 4).
Instead of continuing to move, it is held down by the diffusion member 50a and guided approximately radially outward as indicated by the dotted arrow.

Referring to FIG. 2 along with FIG. 4 again, the diffusion member 50 expands in this way, and as a result, the expanding gas flows almost in the easy direction, so that the expanding force acts only in the direction of the driver. , minimize the possibility of injury due to the impact of the enclosure to the driver, damage to the enclosure due to expansion force acting only in the radial direction of the enclosure, or the need for a long time for expansion. I understand that it can be done.

In an alternative embodiment of the diffusion member shown in FIG. 6, the diffusion member 150 has a downward concave configuration and is shaped like a Belleville washer so that it can be assembled between the nut 42 and the lid member 34. If the diffusion member 1
The force required to flatten 50 is transferred to peripheral edge 152 to provide a greater sealing force between peripheral edge 152 and the top surface of lid member 34.

The alternative embodiment of FIG. 7, which is similar to FIG. 4, uses the same reference numerals as in FIG. 4 for the same elements, prefixed by a "1".

The pyrotechnic fuse 168 is not a continuous particle layer, but a plurality of igniting globules 168.

The pellet 168 may be located within the bottom member 36, or the ignition member may be cast or press fit into the bottom member.

The balls may be spaced closely enough to be in contact, or there may be very small gaps between adjacent balls, but the gaps may not be so large as to interrupt a substantially continuous circumferential ignition path.

A detailed description of the invention is provided above and is capable of making and using it by one of ordinary skill in the art.

Variations and modifications of this invention may be practiced by others upon reading and understanding this specification, and such variations and modifications may be included in this invention insofar as they come within the scope of the following claims.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 is a partial schematic side view of a vehicle embodying the invention; FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional view taken through the steering bundle of FIG. 1; and FIG. 3 is a plan view of an embodiment of the invention. , FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 4--4 of FIG. 3, FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 5-5 of FIG. 3, and FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of the present invention. FIG. 7 is a partial sectional view similar to FIG. 4 showing another embodiment of the invention. 10... safety device, 12... enclosure body,
14... Housing, 20... Steering bundle, 26... Chamber, 28... Shoulder part,
30... Expansion device, 32... Flange, 34... Lid member, 36... Bottom member,
3, 8...Stud, 48...Blowout hole, 50, 50a...Diffusion member, 60...
・Propellant, 62...Ignition member, 72...
electrical conductor.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. An inflatable enclosure for restraining a vehicle occupant in response to a collision signal, which inflates an inflatable enclosure comprising the following members (a) to
(d) an inflation device for a vehicle safety device, comprising: (a) an inflation fluid source operatively generating inflation fluid;
b) an actuating member that is actuated in response to a collision signal to actuate the fluid source; (C) an actuating member that is surrounded by an enclosure to contain a source of inflation fluid and to contain the inflation fluid generated from the source; (d) a casing having a spout orifice that spouts into the housing; (d) a first position disposed over the spout of the casing to seal the spout when the source of inflation fluid is inoperative; Sometimes, the pressure of the inflation fluid generated from the source of inflation fluid causes the orifice to deform toward a second opening position, and this deformation directs the inflation fluid ejecting from the orifice into the enclosure and aligns the orientation of the orifice. A diffusion member made of a hard flexible plate that guides diffusion in substantially orthogonal directions. 2. Inflates an inflatable enclosure for restraining vehicle occupants in response to a collision signal, which comprises the following members (a) to
(e) An expansion device for a vehicle safety device, comprising: (a) a casing having a substantially circular cross section; (b)
a propellant housed in the casing and ignited to generate high-pressure expanding gas; (c) an ignition member attached to the casing that ignites the propellant in response to a collision signal; (d) jetting out high-pressure expanding gas. (e) a lid member of the casing having a nozzle orifice which is disposed over the nozzle of the casing lid member and is in a first position to seal the nozzle when no inflation gas is generated; , is deformed by the pressure of this expanded gas toward the second position where the nozzle is opened, and due to this deformation, the expanded gas ejected from the nozzle is diffused and guided in a direction substantially perpendicular to the direction of the nozzle, and the enclosure is A diffusion member made of a metal plate that has a part designed to expand.